Report of the 3D Consortium Study Session jointly organized by the Technical Sub Committee and the Service/Contents Sub Committee

(Venue: SGI Hall, Ebisu)

November 20, 2006

The Study Session was jointly organized by the Technical Sub committee and the Services/Contents Sub Committee at the SGI Hall in the Yebisu Garden Place Tower on November 20.
The theme of this study session was the "Trends of the latest 3D technologies," which focused on hardware and software for 3D displays which have recently attracted attention as well as introduction of the commitment by the "Magic-C 3D Consortium," an organization which is working on development of technologies and markets for the "3D spatial search technology." 3D spatial search is a technology which proposes new applications that handle input, display, and offering of services with possibilities for development of new markets.
An exhibition with demonstrations was also held.
There were 24 members at the study session for a total of 42 people attending.

Lecture Summary
Sanyo Epson developed high-performance 2-screen displays which toggle between a 3D display and a full 2D display. They developed a new system which realizes two-screen displays by controlling directional characteristics of polarized light because a standard parallax barrier system has problems in handling higher precision and 2D displays. The Sanyo Epson representative explained the outlines of this display in his lecture.

Lecture SummaryHe introduced outlines of the portable 3D display system which was announced in a press release on September 29, 2006. This system is a 3D display system which realizes smooth movement parallax within a 30-degree visual field angle by displaying high density images in directions of 30 different visual axes. In addition, the system which he introduced in the lecture realizes a pseudo full parallax 3D display which allows viewers to see 3D images from various directions by switching and displaying 3D images according to the direction of visual lines of viewers with a small camera installed on the top of a display to detect their view points.

Lecture SummaryAt "The British Museum - Mummy: the inside story" exhibition which has been held at the National Science Museum, Ueno, Tokyo, 3D contents focusing on volume rendering of mummies are presented. The SGI representative introduced technical cooperation by SGI Japan for public presentation of the 3D contents which are included in the collection of the British Museum and the appeal of these contents, and provided prospects and business models for new ways of presenting of 3D contents.

"Renderer and Markerless Tracking of the Augmented Reality System 'D'Fusion'"

Director, General Manager, NTI Co., Ltd.

Mr. Nobukatsu Haraguchi

Lecture Summary"Augmented Reality" is usually translated into Japanese in a way which literally means "enhanced reality" or "emphasized reality." "Virtual Reality" expresses objects and scenes which do not actually exist by utilizing computer graphics (CG); on the contrary, Augmented Reality uses 3D CG as parts to achieve additional effects on live shots. "D'Fusion" which was developed by Total Immersion has been used for simulations of exterior and interior designs by automobile manufacturers for around 5 years in Europe, and also for training simulations for military purposes as a commercialized package system. The range of usage of this technology has been recently expanding including the use for broadcasting, architecture and theme parks, and broadcasting stations and theme parks in Japan have adopted this system. Total Immersion also developed a pattern recognition tracking system by using an image analysis method called "Markerless Tracking" which has been introduced mainly by broadcasting stations.

Lecture SummaryInformation search technologies have drastically evolved recently, and now they are essential for our daily lives. However, many of the mobile search systems adopted technologies for PCs as is, and such systems are not necessarily convenient for users. NEC Magnus Communications affiliated with GeoVector (GV), which is a US venture company, to seek more convenient information search technologies and practical applications of 3D spatial search technology under a slogan "Click on the real world" (trademark) based on the patented 3D spatial search technology which is owned by GV. The 3D spatial search technology aim to acquire information by pointing the target with mobile phones as we do with a computer mouse by processing the real world like a 3D screen. The service was started as a "Local search service by MAPION-dono" for mobile phones by au in January 2006, and the service is planned to be expanded to other carriers including DoCoMo. The "Magic-C 3D Consortium" was established and started activities for popularization and expansion of 3D spatial search service.
Introductions were made about the 3D search technology by GV related to the "3D spatial search technology" which was exhibited at "Wireless Japan 2000" and was announced in a press release in July 2006, 3D maps for mobile phones and the "3D spatial search" related to the display techniques for the 3D maps as examples of achievements by the Magic-C 3D Consortium and also about the Consortium itself.
*Reference http://necmagnus.jp/GViD/

Lecture SummaryThe term, 3D (three dimensions), is widely used for spatial information (stereoscopic). Some of the physical quantities which are detected by sensors are acquired as the 3D vector amount. Magnetic force and accelerated velocity are typical examples of such 3D vectors. Surprisingly, we only have earth magnetism and gravity acceleration as a "spatial vector amount" which can be used widely (without establishing artificial infrastructure) on earth. Therefore, it is common to measure vectors of earth magnetism and gravity acceleration as a method to sense (detect) the position information (direction) of objects (including persons) in real space as an input method for mobile equipment services such as "Navigation for walkers" and "3D spatial search." It is important to understand that the "electronic compasses" which are used for these purposes are not just sensors (which are usually transducers which convert the physical quantity to electrical signals), but rather are an "interface" (which is a tool to extract information from the physical quantity.) Asahi Kasei Microsystems commercialized "3-axis electronic compasses" which grasp earth magnetism in 3D and "6-axis electronic compasses" which grasp both earth magnetism and accelerated velocity in 3D. Elemental technology for electronic compasses and application examples were introduced in this lecture.
*Reference http://www.s3sensor.com